How to paint realistic hummingbirds - part one

Hummingbirds are tiny and packed full of stunning detail, which makes them ideal candidates for scaling up and painting in my very precise, accurate style. A particular feature of the male broad-billed hummingbird, shown here, is the highly coloured and iridescent feathers. When you look at the details up close, however, you’ll see that the feathers are comprised of both pale, bright colours and also dark, almost black, markings. Care must be taken when replicating detailed areas such as this in watercolour, as it is very easy for the two extremes of colour to mix on the paper and create a muddy mess. In this masterclass, I will show you how I painted the two birds, paying particular attention to ensuring the tonal range is correct and the iridescent effect of the feathers is achieved. In order to observe a hummingbird in such detail, it’s vital to have some high quality reference photographs from which to work. Here I used photographs taken by Dennis Donohue that I licensed via www.shutterstock.com. Always check the license situation if you’re working from photos taken by someone else. I made reference to a couple of Dennis’s photographs and planned out my own composition to position the birds around a flower that I knew they would feed on. I always view reference photographs on screen to get the best colour reproduction and so that I can zoom in to see all the detail. Anna offers a free video class via her website www.watercolourswithwow.com

I began by creating a contour drawing – a light pencil outline marking the boundaries between different hues and tones. I used a combination of measuring and drawing by eye from the reference photos that I viewed on screen. Even if you are itching to get on with painting, this stage mustn’t be rushed – I spent three hours on the drawing.

2 START SOFTLY

I started the painting by focusing on the lightest-toned areas of the bird: the buff-coloured feathers on the belly. I used a size 5 brush and a very dilute mix of Payne’s Grey with Burnt Sienna. I also applied this mix to the areas of the head and wings that contained a darker version of this neutral hue because applying the darker colour later would create a less desirable visual mix.

3 SEQUENCE YOUR COLOURS

I applied watery hues of Winsor Lemon, Winsor Green Yellow Shade, Cobalt Turquoise Light and French Ultramarine in stages with a size 3 brush, progressing from the lightest to the darkest hues. I began with a neat layer of each colour, followed by a mix with the next colour to create a gradual transition.

4 DEEPEN THE TONAL RANGE

Following a similar progression, I applied some watery hues to the beak with a size 1 brush – first neat Scarlet Lake, then Scarlet Lake mixed with Burnt Sienna, then finally Burnt Sienna with Payne’s Grey. Next I applied a slightly thicker mix of Payne’s Grey and Burnt Sienna to the areas of darkest tone: the birds’ throats, tails and claws.

5 DRAW THE EYE

I added the darkest tones in the eye next. I used a size 000 brush, steadying my hand on the paper to apply a thick dark black mix made from Payne’s Grey and Burnt Sienna to the pupil area. I added more Burnt Sienna to the mix for the iris, leaving the two small circles of highlight without paint. I used a tiny amount of watery Payne’s Grey to work around the edge of those highlights.

6 DON’T MUDDY THE MIX

I used a size 3 brush to apply a more dilute version of the Payne’s Grey and Burnt Sienna mix to the dark areas of the tail. I then painted short lines with a size 0 brush to create the darkest patches on the body. Although the bright body contains hundreds of dark lines within it, I didn’t apply them here, because I still needed to darken the bright hues first.

7 SPREAD YOUR WINGS

I used a size 1 brush to work on the darkest toned stripes on the wings using a mix of Payne’s Grey, Burnt Sienna and Permanent Alizarin Crimson with a milky consistency. Next I used a more dilute mix of Burnt Sienna, Payne’s Grey and Cobalt Violet to darken the mid-tone parts of the wings. I applied this with a size 3 brush, workingin the direction of the feathers.

8 ADJUST TONES AND COLOURS

With the mid-tones in place, it was easier to see whether the darkest tones in the wings needed further darkening – and they did. Once this was dry, I applied a second layer of the same mixes I used in step 7 to increase the darker tones first, and then the mid-tones again. I also added some Translucent Orange into the mix on the left wing to alter the hue slightly.

9 EARN YOUR STRIPES

I used a size 3 brush to apply a milky mix of Payne’s Grey and French Ultramarine to darken the tail, and also darkened the neutral-hued areas at the bottom with a milky Burnt Sienna wash. Once dry, I used a size 000 brush to paint lots of tiny diagonal stripes across the wing feathers.

The Author

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